Leisure in turbulent times: “second life” realizations

Only half a century ago,  J. Dumazedier argued  that  leisure values were about to “conquer”  massively the modern societies: liberated time from work (because of technology), easy and cheap access to the entertainment (especially to the entertainment media), magic due to the augmenting role of the image would be some of the dimensions imposing a virtual world in which the everyday man feels able to “live” experiences, adventures and relationships, (possibilities inexistent or  forbidden in other systems and cultures -included the classical western “bourgeois” system).

It’s obviously a “mood of laxity” which seems to express a new mentality of “liberation” but also of importance of appearance (of  the “look”) and of ephemeral pleasures; this mood,  deifies the stars and calls for an everyday search of immediate fulfillment  (instead of a promise of happiness in some future paradise –as the closeness to religion does not determines human entertainment).

But despite the imaginary journey of fulfillment into the everyday achievements there is definitely coexistence of virtual euphoria and generalized social poverty: the possibility to “perform” becomes thus “virtual” for most people when “star values” (and the so called modern life style) are very important but all the most difficult to realize. How could Sociology “define” this kind of postmodern “leisure” (where everything seems “possible” whilst this possibility is only a dream? Or a “Second Life” performance?). Speaking about justice, equality and democracy, what would be the challenges of nowadays world linked to the notion of “leisure”?